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Hearing Things: God Talk

“I still remember how
startled I was when a young woman I was interviewing told me God had spoken to
her, audibly.”This is the opening line
of an article I recently read.The
article had an enticing title: “Is that God Talking?”With a title like that, how could I resist!If I were interviewing someone and he or she
told me that God spoke to him or her---audibly---I probably would suspect some
kind of mental illness.Maybe I am a
theologian and a cynic!

Certainly the author,
T.M. Luhrmann, is no kook.She is
professor of anthropology at Stanford.Stanford is one of the leading higher education institutions in the
nation.Luhrmann has been doing
anthropological studies among evangelicals.She wants to know about their religious experience.And in a way, I realized that I also am
fascinated by people’s experience that differ from me.

I would tell people
that I have experienced God and God’s presence.It surely is hard to describe.And if someone finds it hard to believe that I experience God’s
presence, I can understand why he or she would be dubious.But so far as I know, I have never actually
audibly heard God nor have I visibly seen God.So I read on in the article.

Luhrmann noted that
the people she spoke to did not have frequent experiences of this.In fact, some experienced it only once or
twice in a lifetime.And most of the
time, the audible speaking of God was quite commonplace.One woman told Luhrmann that God told her to
build a school.The woman never did
build it.I don’t know what the
consequences of ignoring the Divine word would mean.

Luhrmann had some
interesting statistics.She says, “odd
auditory experiences are quite common.”I wondered what exactly did “common” mean in her anthropological
study?She gives us a hint. “A questionnaire posed to 375 college students
found that 71 percent reported vocal hallucinations of some kind, according to a
study published in 1984 (a finding
consistent with my own research). A 2000
study found that 38.7 percent of the population reported visual, auditory or
other hallucinations, including out-of-body experiences.”71% is a huge number.I was surprised.

Apparently there are
more people out there who are different from me than I thought!That probably should come as no surprise, but
it does.Maybe it is human nature to
assume we are normal---most people are like us.And then, it often turns out not to be the case.So what do we make of this?

Luhrmann sees a link
between “the mind and prayer.”She
connects “hearing a voice…with focused attention to the inner senses.” I began
to understand where this was going.I
realized that even when I say something like, “I sense God’s presence,” I am
appealing at one level to the senses.Probably this becomes even more literal for some folks.

I like where Luhrmann
takes all this.She says that “We often
imagine prayer as a practice that affects the content of what we think about —
our moral aspirations, or our contrition. It’s probably more accurate to understand
prayer as a skill that changes how we use our minds.”That resonated with me.I like the idea of prayer as a skill.It reminds me of the work I have recently
done on the theme of innovation.

I am convinced people
can learn how to be innovative.No
doubt, the same applies when it comes to the practice of prayer or, even,
meditation.To pray or to meditate is to
acquire and hone a skill.There should
be some skill development when one practices something.Why would prayer or meditations be any
different?The author said that people
who were more ardent in praying discovered their “senses became more
acute.”That does not surprise me.She continues, “smells seemed richer, colors
more vibrant.”In a way I hear her
saying that life became more alive!

I conclude a couple
things from this new information.In the
first place it suggests to me what we might expect as a result of praying more
intently or becoming more disciplined in our meditation.However it is not an argument for me to tell
people to start praying so that God will talk to them!As I understand it, prayer is not
causal.Just because you pray to get
rich does not mean becoming a millionaire is around the corner.We pray in order to connect with God.I suppose one way God connects is to talk
with us.

The second take-away
for me is to be reinforced in my discipline of praying.If I can continue the discipline---the
authentic discipline of praying---then I might expect that my own life will
become more vivid and more vibrant.Maybe prayer is spiritually comparable to taking vitamins.It is good for my spiritual health.However, it won’t take away all my problems.It will cause me to be happy ever after.

But if I become
disciplined in prayer, I do think God will talk.Literally or metaphorically, God will say
something like, “well done!”

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